Deceived (2 page)

“I can answer that,” Mary said, taking her spot beside her husband and beaming as he stood and set about filling her a plate from the sideboard. “She is very well, I think. Just overly tired this morning. She’s taking her tray upstairs with Miss Gray as company.”

Juliet Gray was the healer who had saved their mother’s life. The entire family owed the young woman a debt.

“Miss Gray is here?” Gabriel asked, sitting up slightly and joining the conversation for the first time that morning. Their brother had been melancholy for weeks.

And Evan couldn’t blame him. Their sister Claire, Gabriel’s twin, had been missing for nearly two years after an unfortunate marriage. Just a few weeks before, they had nearly found her, but she’d disappeared once more.

“She is,” Mary said softly, and Evan saw her watching Gabriel closely. She was a new addition to their family, but already she had the same care and worry for them as anyone could hope for.

“Do you think that the wedding will be too much for her?” Audrey asked. “It is only a few days away.”

At the question, everyone at the table began to smile. How could they not? Audrey’s impending nuptials to Jude Samson, whom the entire family had long considered a brother, were cause for much joy, even if their “courtship” had not been usual.

“No,” Edward said with an encouraging smile for Audrey as he handed over Mary’s plate and retook his spot. “I spoke to her at length about it last night. She is very much looking forward to it. We will all be mindful of her condition and Miss Gray will attend to ensure she is not overly excited.”

“The wedding itself is a small affair anyway,” Jude reassured his future bride, taking her hand in his and smiling down at her. “Just family and the barest few friends. And if the gathering she has planned for afterward gets to be too much for her, I’m sure Miss Gray will insist on making her rest.”

Audrey smiled up at him adoringly, but then shook her head as if clearing it. “Oh, that reminds me. I will have to tell the staff that they should make space for two more guests at the ceremony.”

“Two more?” Edward asked. “Who else have you decided to include?”

“Josie and her mother,” Audrey said. “I thought it would be nice to have them here.”

Gabriel and Evan both tensed, though Evan thought their anxieties stemmed from very different sources. Likely Gabriel was reminded of Claire by the mention of Josie’s name, since the two had been best friends.

But Evan was reminded of something very different.

He took a long sip of his coffee before he said, “Jocelyn Westfall, you mean?”

Audrey wrinkled her brow as she stared at him. “Do you know many other Josies?” she teased.

“I suppose I don’t,” he said, hoping his reaction wasn’t totally clear on his face. After all, Josie was normally a source of frustration for him. He hadn’t seen her in several years, even before Claire disappeared. And he hadn’t exactly been sorry about that fact. “Why are you inviting her? It would be quite the trek for her and her mother.”

Audrey shrugged. “When Mary and I were in the village yesterday, we saw Mrs. Westfall’s butler, Mr. Charles. He was always such a friendly man and he said he had arrived ahead of them to prepare the country estate. They should be here from London this afternoon.”

Evan gripped his leg beneath the table. “I see. And you’re inviting her to your family wedding.”

Audrey hesitated slightly and her gaze flitted down to her plate. “She was like family growing up. She and Claire were thick as thieves. Having her here would be a bit like—”

She cut herself off abruptly, but the entire table knew what she meant. Including Evan, who promptly began to hate himself for making Audrey say out loud a pain he wished she didn’t feel. He cleared his throat before he forced a grin.

“Josie Westfall despises me, you know.”

Audrey glanced up and her eyes were suddenly brighter. “I know,” she said as she got to her feet. “But
you’re
invited anyway.” He threw a hand up to his chest with a dramatic gasp that set Audrey to laughing. “And now I must go up to Mama. I promised to show her the final stitching on the veil for the wedding.”

Mary leapt up, plate of food half uneaten. “Oh, I will come too! I cannot wait to see the final product.”

“But you’ve hardly—” Edward began, but Mary cut him off by leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead.

“I know, I know. I’ll have a very hardy luncheon, I assure you,” she laughed as she caught Audrey’s hand and the two left the room. For a few moments, they could all hear the peals of giggles coming from the two women in the distance.

“That girl will drive me to distraction,” Edward muttered, though he exchanged a knowing smile with Jude across the table.

“The very best kind of distraction,” Jude responded with a smile just as telling.

Gabriel rolled his eyes as he reached across to Mary’s abandoned plate and took an uneaten sausage link from it. “You two. I swear, you are like puppies.”

“Oh, don’t listen to Gabriel,” Evan said with a half-smile for the other two men. “He’s just being broody and dramatic.”

“I don’t brood,” Gabriel said, though the glare he tossed Evan certainly didn’t make his case.

Evan shrugged. “One of us should. Great God, it used to be Edward, but now he flits around all in love and happy. That leaves the brooding to you, brother.”

“And why not you?” Gabriel asked, though the corners of his lips had begun to twitch as the conversation went on. It was good to see after the past few weeks—hell,
years
—of disappointment and sadness.

“I’d make a terrible brooder,” Evan said with a shrug. “I don’t have a dark bone in my body, I fear.”

“Truly?” Jude asked, joining in the fun. And he could since he had been part of their clan for what seemed like forever. Marrying Audrey would only solidify his place as the fourth Woodley brother.

“Why do you look so incredulous?” he demanded.

Edward was the one who responded. He laughed as he said, “‘Josie Westfall despises me!’” Then he threw his hand up to his forehead and tossed his head back with great dramatic flair, setting off laughter from Jude and Gabriel.

Evan shifted in his chair. “Now wait a moment…”

“Oh, you cannot deny it. You were all dramatics when asking about her,” Jude interrupted. “You should have seen your eyes.”

Folding his arms, Evan stared straight ahead. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re being an idiot.”

“Why
does
she hate you so much anyway?” Edward asked. “I’ve never understood it.”

For a brief moment, Evan flashed back to a much-recalled and highly despised afternoon sixteen years ago. Flashed back to the bright pain in Josie’s eyes. Then he blinked those thoughts away, along with the shame that accompanied them.

“I don’t know,” he lied. “Miss Westfall has the memory of an elephant, I suppose. Never forgets a slight.”

“You slighted her?” Jude said with wide eyes.

“I don’t know. She hates me, I must have,” Evan said, waving away their questions. “Or maybe she just doesn’t like my choice in cravats. Who knows with women?”

Gabriel blinked at him and Evan turned his head so he wouldn’t see his younger brother’s knowing stare.

“Well, I hope you won’t let it interfere with Audrey’s wedding,” Edward said as he pushed to his feet.

Evan wrinkled his brow. “I would never do that.”

“Edward, did you want to go over those figures?” Jude asked, also taking his feet.

Edward laughed and shot Gabriel and Evan a glance. “Three days to his wedding and this one is still managing estate business.”

Jude rolled his eyes. “Because I intend to leave you manager-less for several blissful weeks after I make Audrey mine. So take me while you can get me.”

Edward clapped an arm around their friend and the two moved toward the door. “So I can’t send you messages day and night about estate minutia?” he teased.

“You can, but I won’t answer them,” Jude chuckled as they left the room.

Once they were gone, Gabriel turned his attention back to Evan. His younger brother leaned back, folding his arms and meeting his gaze evenly. “You haven’t really forgotten why Josie hates you, have you?”

Evan glared at him. He had often wished his younger brother hadn’t been witness to the afternoon in question.

“I remember something about it,” he admitted. “I should have known
you’d
recall it all, with that memory of yours.”

Gabriel shrugged. “I pay attention to detail, that’s all.”

“Yes, you do that,” Evan muttered, his own mind recreating the very details he wished he could forget forever. “You know, it was a decade and a half ago. You’d think she could just forget it. I have apologized a dozen times.”

His brother lifted both eyebrows. “She must have her reasons. When was the last time you apologized?”

Evan pursed his lips. “The year she came out. So…”

“Eight years ago?” Gabriel said with a shake of his head.

“Well, she hardly spoke to me during those eight years,” Evan said, pushing out of his chair and pacing the room. “Even when she was running about with Claire, she’d hardly look at me. Look, the girl doesn’t like me. That’s fine. She may not even come to Audrey’s wedding. Then how she feels or doesn’t feel about me won’t matter a whit. Hell, if she comes it won’t matter. I’ll see her for all of a few hours—she’ll avoid me. That will be the end of it.”

Gabriel shrugged. “Very well, if you say so. Now I am going to go up and talk to Mama for a bit. I’ll see you later.”

His brother walked from the room and Evan moved back over to the table. He leaned his hands against the smooth surface and tried to control the tangled emotions that knotted in his chest. Thoughts of Miss Jocelyn Westfall always did that. Damn her.

“This is ridiculous,” he barked, then spun from the room and out the front door. He began to make his way down the path to the stable where he would take his horse out for a very long run.

But there was a part of him that knew from bitter experience that he could run his horse into the ground, but he would never fully escape the past. The best he could hope to do was push away the guilt that followed it.

Josie looked up from the stack of papers in her lap as her mother entered the parlor. She smiled and stood to greet Mrs. Westfall with a kiss.

“You look rested,” she said.

“Oh yes, I napped the road away very well.” Mrs. Westfall laughed as she took her place across from where Josie had been seated and tucked a lock of rich chestnut hair behind her delicate ear.

Josie sighed. Her mother was so very pretty, even in her advancing years. And while Josie had inherited the same color of hair, hers lacked the luster of Mrs. Westfall’s. And she certainly did not have the slimness of body her mother had retained even after birthing four children.

“Is that tea?” Mrs. Westfall asked, motioning to the service on the table before them. Josie jolted into action.

“Yes, gracious, I’m sorry. I was woolgathering,” she said, pouring the tea into first her mother’s cup, then freshening her own. “Would you like a cake?”

“No, I couldn’t.”

Mrs. Westfall’s gaze shifted to the cake on Josie’s plate, sitting half-eaten. She said nothing, but Josie felt her words without needing to hear them. She pushed the plate aside and returned her attention to the paperwork.

“What is that, dear?” Mrs. Westfall asked.

Josie shrugged. “Just a few details here and there about estate things. Some news about the tenant families, that sort of thing. I thought I might make some rounds to them while we’re here and asked Charles to gather the information.”

Her mother waved her hand. “Oh, Richard should do that.”

Josie pursed her lips as she thought of her brother, older than her by more than fifteen years. He wasn’t exactly a wastrel, but he liked having money more than responsibility.

“Yes, he should,” she said softly. “But since he isn’t here, I must take it up in his stead.”

She sorted through some of the papers slowly, reviewing staff changes and other minutia with relish. She had always loved facts and figures and reading of any kind. When she glanced up, she found her mother frowning at her.

“You know, someday you’ll need spectacles the way you read so much,” Mrs. Westfall scolded softly.

Josie forced a smile. “Perhaps you’re right.”

This was a little game they played. Her mother would half-heartedly try to encourage her to be more focused on her appearance while Josie would pretend to listen. At the heart of it though, she knew the truth. Her entire family had given up on her marrying well years ago. So had Josie, truth be told.

“Is that an invitation in your little pile?” her mother gasped, reaching out to snatch the corner of an envelope that was hidden in the midst of the papers.

Josie laughed. “You are like a bloodhound when it comes to such things!”

Mrs. Westfall glanced up with a smile. “Oh, it is from the Woodleys!”

The smile on Josie’s face slipped away and she found herself setting her papers down slowly. “Is it?”

“Yes. I had all but forgotten they were in Briarlake Cross.”

“How could you?” Josie teased, trying to lighten the mood for herself. “There was gossip associated with it.”